Thursday, December 31, 2009

I, as many of you, have spent the last few days watching all or part of a bunch of College Football Bowl games, which I usually enjoy this time of the year.

But a chance remark from my Daughter i.e. "Dang, how many Bowl games are there? started me thinking, and I found I did not know the answer to her question. So I did my homework, and found;

In College Games, there are currently Thirty Four Bowls. And as a minority of one, I think there are way too many games to keep us even interested, let alone eagerly anticipated. I decided to do a small review of Bowl Games, then and now.

Using an arbitrary cut off date of 1950, in which year there were exactly seven Major bowl games ( there were a number of others I never heard of, and I'll wager did any of you).

In 1950 there were, in order of their beginning:The Rose Bowl, the Granddaddy of all Bowl Games, First played in 1902The Orange Bowl Circa 1935The Sugar Bowl same yearThe Sun Bowl also 1935the Cotton Bowl, which joined the Line-up in 1937The Gator Bowl, 1946And finally, the Citrus Bowl, debuting in 1947.

That line up seemed to me at the time to be perfectly adequate, enough to irritate a lot of wives, but yet cause few divorces, or threats thereof, while providing entertainment for Husbands Nationwide.

But, an interesting fact I ran across, while doing a bit of research for this post are the number of now defunct Bowl games I never heard of, And, I'll wager, nor did you, (save a few grizzled sports writers.

There were 56 of them, ranging alphabetically from the All-American Bowl, played in Birmingham, Alabama 1977-1990, to the Will Rogers Bowl, played in Oklahoma City in 1947.

Now, I may be displaying my ignorance, but I never even heard of most of these now defunct bowls, such as, the Cigar Bowl, played in Tampa, Fla 1947-1956, the Glass Bowl, Toledo, Ohio, 1946-1949, The Haka Bowl, Proposed for Auckland, New Zealand in 1996, but never played, the Oil Bowl, Houston, Texas, 1946 & 47, The Oyster Bowl, Norfolk, Virginia 1948-95, The Poi Bowl, Honolulu, HI, 1936-39, the Refrigerator Bowl, Evansville, In, 1948-56,The Salad Bowl, Phoenix, Az 1948-52, and the Tobacco Bowl, South Boston, Va ,and later Richmond, Va 1935-84. One cannot peruse the list of these now extinct Bowls without noticing that there was also a Mercy Bowl (No doubt named by fed-up wives) to the Mirage Bowl, in Tokyo, Japan, presumably played with imaginary players and teams.

Another sign of the Times that I don't particularly care for is the Insertion of the Sponsor's Name ahead of the name of the Bowl Game e.g.the "Tostitos Fiesta Bowl". Whats next? The American Standard Toilet Bowl?